1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and a system for ordering image processing in a digital photographic service using the Internet for example, whereby a print output of an image on which processing such as composition has been carried out is ordered via the network.
2. Description of the Related Art
Digital photographic services using the Internet have become recently available. According to these services, if digitization and storage of images are ordered at the time a film is deposited for development, for example, the photographs recorded on the film are disclosed via the Internet only to the orderer. Therefore, the orderer can order additional printing, etc. without going to a service provider, simply by referring to the disclosed photographs on a personal computer connected to the network.
As an image file appropriate for such a digital photographic service, FlashPix files have been proposed by Eastman Kodak Co. FlashPix files are based on a structured storage technique proposed by Microsoft Corp., and the files themselves have hierarchy structures similar to conventional directory structures. More specifically, image data is classified by resolution, wherein the same image can be represented at various resolutions, or various kinds of property information of the image data may be recorded as components of the hierarchy.
By storing images as FlashPix files in a server, a service provider provides low resolution image data which has a higher transfer or display speed when the user requests reference to the images stored in the server, for example. Furthermore, when the user requests a print output of the same images, the service provider uses image data at a higher resolution. In this manner, appropriate data are used depending on the purpose. Moreover, since one image corresponds to one file, a complicated management of the images is not required.
Meanwhile, for the above described digital photographic service, in the case where printing of processed images such as printing of a composed photograph, is ordered, a method has been proposed wherein a user carries out the image processing (such as image composition on a personal computer) and provides a laboratory with information showing a procedure of the image processing, instead of processed image data, via a recording medium such as a floppy disc, or via a network. In this case, a system in the laboratory can carry out the same processing as the user has carried out on the personal computer, based on the information provided by the user. By carrying out this processing on stored high resolution image data, a processed photographic print can be generated.
When a laboratory (service provider) and a user carry out the same procedure in this manner, a program for the processing is usually written that emphasizes the quality of images printed in a laboratory, and the program is installed in the system as a single program, being provided to users as well.
Since this program is sometimes provided to a user via a network, it is preferable for the program size to be small.
However, in order to reduce the size of the program, it is necessary to simplify the processing the program carries out, or to lower the precision of the processing. However, by doing this, image quality of prints may not be maintained.
Based on consideration of the above problems, an object of the present invention is to provide a method for ordering image processing, wherein the quality of a print is maintained and the amount of transferred programs or data is reduced when transferring the image processing program (including the data to be used for the processing) from a server computer of a service provider to a personal computer of a user, in the case where the image processing is ordered via a network.